


Our Choices Define Us

by Lexen (bluedragoninamber)



Series: The Greater Good:  A Room of Requirement for my Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald Stories [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Nurmengard, Suicide, Triggers, repost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 08:41:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19943323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluedragoninamber/pseuds/Lexen
Summary: Albus is dying, Gellert is dying, and Albus gets the chance to make one final choice.





	Our Choices Define Us

**Author's Note:**

> Please Read: This story is mine. I am the original and only author. It was first posted on FFN more than five years ago. I don’t remember exactly when. I took all my stories down off the internet and left the HP fandom due to personal reasons. I am now returning to the fandom and reposting some of my old stories. When I posted these stories on FFN, my penname was Lexen (and sometimes Hope4astalemate and bluedragoninamber) though I usually went by Lex. To repeat, this story is mine. Please don’t claim I have stolen it from someone else. Also, please don’t ask me to repost a particular story. I will be reposting only those stories which I choose to repost, and I will only be reposting them here.

** Disclaimer ** **: I don’t own it, and I am making no money off of it.**

**AN** **: This AU story is Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald slash. After Albus has been cursed by the locket but before the Astronomy Tower, Albus learns that Gellert is dying in prison and makes one final choice. Trigger warning for double suicide.**

“You’re not coming back, are you?”

Albus turned to see Severus Snape standing in the doorway to his sitting room.

Albus sighed. “No. I’m not coming back.” He paused. “I just said goodbye to Minerva. Did she send you here?”

Severus nodded wearily. “But I knew already. I recognized the bird when it dropped off the message to you yesterday. Only Nurmengard uses that particular kind of raven as a messenger.” He paused, watching the man he counted as a friend and a mentor pack a small bag. “Is Gellert dead?”

Albus swallowed hard. “Not yet. But he will be within the week.” A ghost of a smile touched his lips. “I never knew until now that Gellert listed me as his next-of-kin. Apparently, even the wardens at Nurmengard are humane enough to allow family members the chance to say goodbye.”

“You are going to help him the rest of the way, aren’t you?” Severus asked. 

Albus did not look at Severus as he stumbled slightly, steadying himself with his blackened hand. 

“And you are going to go with him.”

It was not a question, and Albus saw no reason to answer him. He continued preparing to leave. A hand on his shoulder finally forced him to meet Severus’s eyes.

“Do you have what you need?” Severus paused, lowering his voice. “There are dark magic nullification wards all over that place. You won’t be able to use your wand.”

“I have potions,” Albus said quietly. “They’ll be sufficient.”

His attention was caught by a slight rustle of cloth as Severus took out something from his pocket and reversed the shrinking charm. In his hand was a small cushioned pouch. When he opened it, Albus saw the two familiar vials nestled inside it.

Albus hesitated then slowly reached out and took the pouch. 

“You knew,” he said. 

Severus’s dark eyes flashed with something…pain…perhaps grief, but he did not flinch.

“I guessed. I think I know you better than most.” He paused. “You wish to spare Draco...and me.”

Albus nodded. “And you. I think that either way, it would have ended up being you.”

Severus did not answer.

Albus tucked the pouch into his bag. “Thank you, Severus.” He turned to leave.

“Albus, why?”

Albus turned back to look at him. “It’s for the greater good, Severus.” He sighed. “But after having lived more than a century, I have come to realize that the greater good sometimes extends only as far as the occupant of a cell in Nurmengard and a dying old man who wants to make peace with the man he still loves.”

The embrace, when it came, was swift and unexpected. Severus’s arms were too tight, but Albus said nothing, merely wrapped the younger man in his arms for a moment. Severus let go abruptly, and Albus swiped a hand gently across Severus’s face, taking tears with it.

“It is merely the next great adventure, my boy. I am quite ready to see what is waiting for me.” He blinked rapidly, feeling the tears slipping down his face to melt into his beard. He did not move to wipe them away. 

Severus cleared his throat. His voice came out strangled. “You will be missed, Albus.”

Albus simply said, “I know.” He reached out and grabbed the younger man’s hand. “You’re a good man, Severus Snape…a better man than me in so many ways. This one final chance is all I can give you…all I have left to give you.”

Severus took a breath. “Thank you.” It came out in a whisper.

Albus’s good hand slipped out of Severus’s grasp as he turned and walked away.

The sun never reached inside the wall of Nurmengard. The prison was Gellert’s creation, and it didn’t need dementors to torment its prisoners. Gellert understood that solitary confinement and a complete absence of light would be just as effective as any kind of magical torment. 

Albus knew that Gellert could now testify to that.

“How did you get rid of the warden?”

Albus hardly recognized Gellert’s voice. It was scratchier than Hagrid’s best suit and so soft that Albus had to strain to hear it. Albus still thought it was beautiful.

“Bribery, of course. A bag of gold in his hand and he was willing to do whatever I wanted.” Albus cast cleaning and warming charms because Gellert was shivering. 

Gellert chuckled weakly. “So I’ve corrupted you at last, have I?”

Albus lifted his good hand and traced the wrinkles on Gellert’s face.

“You corrupted me with your very first kiss. I didn’t regret it then, and I still don’t regret it now.” He wrapped the blankets more snugly around them because Gellert was still shivering.

Gellert waved him off as he tried to cast another warming charm.

“Don’t bother, Albus. I’m in the final stage of this disease, and even magic can’t keep me warm anymore.”

Albus considered. “What if there was another way I could get you warm?”

Gellert’s blue eyes were puzzled. “Albus, if you’re suggesting what I think you are, I would like nothing better than to do that. But you have to realize that I haven’t been able to do that in many, many years.”

Albus smiled slightly. “Neither have I. I wasn’t suggesting anything physical.” He lowered his voice. “Open your mind to me, Gellert. Open your mind to me, and I will open my mind to you.”

Gellert said softly, “But even that I cannot manage for long. I’m dying, Albus. It’s time that you faced that.”

Albus shook his head. He raised his blackened hand to his friend for the first time. The blackening skin had crept further, and it now reached his elbow.

“I know, Gellert. I know because I’m dying too.” He saw the sheen of what might have been tears in the other man’s eyes. “An unfortunate encounter with a curse.” He paused and held his friend’s gaze. “I came here knowing that. I brought something that will help.”

Carefully, he extracted the pouch and showed its contents to him. Gellert’s eyes widened.

“You’ve brought my freedom with you.”

“Our freedom because you’re not going without me,” Albus corrected him gently, his fingers caressing Gellert’s chapped lips. “This time, we’re doing this together.”

“For the greater good?” Gellert whispered as he let his mental shields fall.

“For our greater good,” Albus answered as he dropped his own shields and opened his mind to the man he loved.

Suddenly, they were back in that heady summer they had spent together. They were intoxicated with each other and the wonder of magic newly discovered. Everything was just as it had been except that, when Albus reached for Gellert that moonlit night, Gellert didn’t turn away.

When the warden did finally check on them the next morning, he found them still with death, bodies intertwined and two potion vials empty beside them.

A scrap of parchment lay beside Albus’s wand. In a shaky hand, as though it had been scratched out seconds before the potions took hold, the warden read these words.

“For the greater good.”


End file.
